Conveyor roller systems are used by the manufacturing and transport, as well as other, industries in the movement of goods. Improvements have been made in conveyor systems, such as the system shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,140, issued to Clos, that shows a roller having a splined drive that is engaged by a ribbed drive belt, and as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,140, having powered rollers that use drive belts between adjacent rollers to transmit power from a driven roller to one or more adjacent rollers. Such roller systems have helped to reduce the cost and complexity in construction of such conveying systems.
While roller conveyor systems that use drive belts between rollers have provided provide improvements, there remains a need to improve the means of protecting persons and articles from becoming entangled in the rotating rollers and belts of the system. Safety standards require that rotating equipment that can expose a person's body or clothing to becoming entangled in the rotating features, must be provided with a means of guarding or preventing a person's body or clothing from coming between such rotating rollers and their belts. This has traditionally been accomplished by building a housing over that drive portion of the conveyor rollers. This reduces the area available on the surface of the roller conveyors for transporting articles, and adds to the complexity and cost of designing and installing such conveyor systems.
There remains a need for an improved means for protecting persons and their clothing from becoming entangled in the rotating rollers and drive belts of roller conveyor systems.